Photo by LaTur

The New York Times has started posting all the Senate Republican amendments to the health care reform bill, and, surprise, surprise, one of them concerns the District of Columbia’s same-sex marriage law:

Bennett amendment: To protect the Democratic process and the right of the people of the District of Columbia to define marriage. (#3568)

That’d be Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah, of course, and we understand that he has the support of Senators Wicker, Brownback, Hatch, Roberts, Inhofe and Cornyn as well. The amendment basically seeks to force D.C. to allow a ballot measure on same-sex marriage, despite numerous Board of Elections and court decisions to the contrary. It would also suspend issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples until such a vote is held.

It’s incredibly unlikely that this amendment would actually pass. The Republican gameplan in the Senate is to offer up a litany of these sorts of “poison pill” amendments in an effort to muck up the reconciliation bill enough so that the House would be forced to vote again. And this amendment frankly seems ripe for simply being ruled out of order, since it doesn’t concern the budget. Still, it’s helpful to be reminded that conservative senators have this local issue on their minds — this won’t be the last time a member of Congress tries to find a way to interfere with D.C.’s same-sex marriage law.